Sorry I've been so absent this week, I haven't slept good most of the week and I've been kinda tired! I'm also back to re-reading again, a Christian series for college age girls that I've always enjoyed. I've been watching a lot of the Olympics, I love sports and we had dinner with my parents last night.

I've re-started Weight Watchers, gearing up for our vacation in April, and trying to lose the pesky weight I gained when we first got married! Thankfully my Mom is doing it too, so it's nice to have someone around for support!

Song-Shingles? Oh no! I'm so sorry How are you feeling now?

I never realized MM's problems were that frustrating :/ sounds a bit like OCD to me (the street crossing issue, anyway), hope you get it figured it out I love hearing all about the stuff your kiddos do..and I can imagine how frustrating their school is! So annoying!

Susie-So glad to see you around again! Loved seeing your pretty pictures the other day, how nice! And aww, thanks I've really been working on spending more time with him instead of us separately zoning out after work. How's your hubby's new job, does he still enjoy it?

Lynne-I ended up picking out a stuffed dog and putting bows on her ears because Jason never lets me do it to our boy dog, Rolph. I felt a little old to be there but the employees assured me they see lots of people my age. It was fun, but expensive!

Sorry about The Reign not being back yet :/ Sounds like you've been busy at work!

I'm seeing lots of promos for Divergent already but I'm still probably not going to see it. I just get so sad every time I think about the ending.

I hope that everyone came out of the storms last night OK. Of course, weather is the main reason why I'm not back home yet. We're still waiting for the water pipe that goes from the well into our house to thaw so the plumbing can be finished. Hopefully that'll be done by sometime this weekend.

Other than that, I'm tired of the psychopathic weather changes. This winter's been anything but normal here. It's either been insanely cold for what it's supposed to be, or it's been much warmer than average in short bursts, or it's been snowy and windy. And every night were we've had a snow storm, the clouds at night have always been darker in the south than in the north. I wonder if where I'm staying at being close to downtown Mansfield and the lighting from all the stuff there has anything to do with it.

And then I've been sick most of this week, and I found out from my boss Renee that almost everyone at where I'll be working soon has been sick. But at least all of this stuff should be over soon.

I have some TV to watch tonight and other than that, aside from going downstairs to eat something later on, I'll be up here until evening. And should I add that hearing the wind up here is pretty eerie?

Songbird: Have you had chickenpox in the past? If so, shingles was probably in the cards, because the virus that causes chickenpox can also cause shingles, or at least that's what a commercial on TV here in the US says. Not saying that it always happens, because people can get shingles without ever having chickenpox, but since the same virus can cause both, it does increase the chances. I hope that you'll be able to get better soon

I had so much fun today. I really love skype! It's such a fantastic way to keep in touch with friends when you are far apart. I spent about an hour chatting with my author friend in Ireland this morning and it was hilarious. She is trying really hard to get published and one of the more recent books she wrote that I read for her is amazing and I don't understand WHY it's not getting picked up. So she was saying that in the current market, publishers only taking books in a certain form...with kind of cookie cutter male heroes who are buff and manly and swoop in to rescue the woman. She writes stronger female characters who can save themselves and find love along the way. So we were talking about that and how self publishing is creating a niche for writers who are not really mainstream, and the genres that publishers won't pick up but that are making self published authors millionaires. It got horribly inappropriate and we were both laughing hysterically by the end of our conversation. She was ignorant of certain genres that I had...discovered? I don't know if that's the right word as I have never read this genre, but saw an article on a friend's FB about amazon censoring it. Anyway, it got quite bawdy and we both need therapy now. But it was so much fun to laugh with her on skype. We chat almost weekly on skype just to keep up with things in each other's lives and it's so nice.

Sean, I guess I didn't realize that your oldest brother was a half-brother. It's good that everyone at least has somewhere to stay until you can get back home.Yes, I had chickenpox. My doctor said you can't get shingles if you haven't had chickenpox...and not everyone who got chickenpox will get shingles. 95% of adults in the Netherlands have had chickenpox. But you don't get shingles FROM someone who has shingles. Though I CAN give someone chickenpox if they haven't had it. It's just if you've had it, the virus sits in your cells for the rest of your life and sometimes it reactivates and manifests as shingles. Weird virus!!!

Sarah, good luck with the weight watchers! I hope it goes well!!What's the series called that you are reading right now?Yes, MM is SUPER frustrating sometimes. I've thought maybe autism, but he doesn't have that social disconnect that seems to be the one factor that is across the board associated with autism. But he definitely has issues with routine and flexibility.I'm feeling...itchy. And once in a while it burns...like a cigarette against my skin. But it's still bearable, thanks for asking!

Lynne, I'm so glad to hear that. I remembered you saying Caryn had read The Heir for you, because I remembered the one chapter you sent to me before it was published and I had mentioned the "car park" that we call "Parking lot" and I think something else, though I can't remember what now, and you said she had given you some things like that, too. It really does make a difference!Wow, I'm surprised your heat was so bad last night! Shasta blamed me this morning for passing on my "unhealthy attachment" to my blowdryer, and I reminded her it was SUMMER there and she said it was cold today. Though you are pretty far away, so I suppose it could be hot where you are and cold where she is. And what she calls "cold" coming from California is not really cold.

It's Saturday here and also my father-in-law's birthday, so we'll be going over there for dinner and cake tonight. Yum! It's all quiet here apart from that.

Sarah - your dog is name Rolph? That's so cute. I hope you have good success with weight watchers. I think I will see Divergent. I'm interested to see what they do with it, but it will be a difficult thing for me.

Sean - take care in that crazy weather!

Susan - Has your friend had a professional edit done on her book? While it's not necessarily going to get a publisher to accept her, it might help things. It really is important to do that. Self publishing can help in some situations, but she should be wary. There are plenty of traps in that as well. Yes, I dare say your friend is cooler where she is than we have been this week. it's quite a distance away.

I'm having a lovely lazy day!! It's 11:00 a.m. and I'm still in my pjs! It's so nice!

Lynne, my friend doesn't self publish. She's been sending her books around to agents like crazy and there was one who REALLY liked this one book. Said amazing things about it and then passed...it was confusing. The agent told her that while the writing was strong, and it made her cry and really touched her, it was too commercial and she didn't feel she would be good at selling it. That makes NO sense to me, but that's the publishing world. We were just making fun of that aspect of self publishing that creates a platform for alternative genres that wouldn't be picked up by a professional publisher. It's ironic that a book that is well written, "commercial", and has a great plot can't get published, yet a book about...."baking" with a yeti has made its author a millionaire because of self-publishing. My friend can't afford to pay to have her book read, so she sends the books to me and to another friend. We are both avid readers and pretty good with catching inconsistencies, etc. And by our questions, she can see where she hasn't explained something properly or where something doesn't work. She's been encouraging me to become a professional manuscript reader. I'm looking into it. So no, she hasn't technically had a professional edit done on her book, but she has had readers give her advice about what works and what doesn't and if she gets an agent, they would work with an editor, I'm sure.How's your weather? Did it cool off at all?

Hopefully I'll be home soon. I'll hopefully know later on when my father and brother are done at home. Hopefully if the pipe thawed I'll be back home within a couple of days.

Other than that, I didn't do too much last night and I don't have too much I have planned for tonight. I'll probably be up here on the laptop most of today and following the stuff in Daytona from here.

At least I know that I should be back to work soon, though an exact date still hasn't been worked out yet.

You should have seen the birthday cake I ate last night. It was huge! A great big, white chocolate mudcake with chocolate ganache through it and all over the outside. Even I had trouble getting through my piece, and that's unusual for me. Now I think I need to go on a diet!

It's going to be a quiet day today. We've got some work to do, like washing the cars. Whoopdedoo.

Today was kinda crazy..it's tax season here again, so I volunteered to go back into my FIL's office on Saturday mornings to earn extra money. It felt really good to be back in the office just to use some of those skills again, though I was mostly coping stuff and prepping this year's client files (literally putting name stickers on file folders!), so I pulled out my iPod and watched some of THG I'm really excited for Catching Fire's release!

I'm tired, which is to be expected though! Last night I went out with my best friend who just got married in November, and we ate at Olive Garden since her husband works there. I didn't last on Weight Watchers-it was too good to pass up-but I'm trying to be back on today, if I can. I just want to feel confident in a swimsuit again! I gained about 30 pounds after getting married (you've seen Jason, he's a skinny stick man that eats whatever he wants : ) ).

Lynne-that cake sounds delicious!! Yum! Let me know what you think of Divergent. It's just too painful. I thought I'd taken Finnick's death hard, but I've taken Tris's WAY harder.

Rolph was the name that the shelter had for him, so Jason never changed it. It fits him well though, I think. He's a friendly goofball who loves everyone!

Song-It's called the Katie Weldon series by Robin Jones Gunn. It's part of a larger series called the Christy Miller series, which is a Christian fiction series for high school kids. I've gone back and read most of the CM series, but I love the quirkyness of her best friend, Katie. It's well written fiction and just a nice change from all the dystopian and sci fi I have been reading.

I'll be following the Daytona 500 online today, provided that they even get the damned thing started, let alone run it to the finish because of rain. I'm still at my parents house and I don't know when I'll be going home, because, at least as of yesterday, the water pipe was still frozen. I've been wanting to go back home all of last week, but the water/plumbing issue is the big hold up.

At least I have some groceries today and I have some stuff to occupy me until later tonight. At least I have that going for me.

I'm off to work for Rochelle again today. At least, I'm pretty sure we said today. I sent her an email yesterday to confirm, but I haven't heard back. Hopefully, I won't turn up and find out I'm not supposed to be there.

Sarah - My hubby's a stick too. It's so unfair. He can eat as much food as he likes and he never puts on any weight. Me? Just the opposite. I could pack it away just as well as he can, but if I did, I'd be the size of a house!